


Stories

by anythingbutplatonic



Series: Olicity Hiatus Road Trip Collection [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 14:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4839392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutplatonic/pseuds/anythingbutplatonic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Very early on in their relationship, they'd established a system of trading in stories; one of his in exchange for one of hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories

 If she were Catholic, she might have made the analogy of a worshipper and their priest in the confession box, sitting on either side of the small window that separated the sinner from the person whose job it was to speak on God’s behalf and forgive them for what they had done.

 As it turned out, she was Jewish, and she didn’t really put much stock in the whole “unburden your sins and be forgiven” thing anyway. 

Pretty early on, she and Oliver had established a system, a way of communicating, of starting to make a life for themselves. One night, while enjoying the last of the sun’s rays before it got dark, sitting out on the back porch with a half-empty bottle of wine in between them, they had agreed on a trade in stories; one of his in exchange for one of hers. The good  _and_  the bad. 

It wasn’t about confessing past crimes. It wasn’t even, really, about telling the truth. It was about starting over. A new slate for a new life, together. 

She told him about how she met Cooper. 

He told her about the first girl he’d ever kissed. 

She told him about her Goth phase. 

He told her about the first time he ever tried tequila. 

She told him about what it had been like when she thought Cooper had died.

He told her about the first time he took a life. 

It was hard, so hard, especially in the beginning, when the wounds of the recent months were most fresh and the newness of their relationship as scary as it was exciting. Oliver had the most stories to tell, and Felicity let him tell them, wrapping her arms around his shaking shoulders when he cried and giving him space when he asked for it. She kissed him on the forehead, his cheeks, his jaw, and reassured him that anything he said couldn’t possibly change the way she felt about him. 

When it was her turn to tell her stories, he listened with the kind of seriousness she had come to associate with him when it came to all things  _her_  and  _them_ , a seriousness that meant he was one hundred percent committed to them, to this, to whatever it was that they were doing. He stroked her hair and brought her close to feel the beat of her heart as she told him about the first computer she’d ever built, the time during her sophomore year of college where she didn’t speak to her mother for three months, the time she tried to dye her own hair and it turned bright green. 

(He’d asked her afterwards, grinning, if she had photos. She smacked him on the arm and got up from the couch to make herself a cup of coffee without asking if he wanted one, too.)

She told him about being abandoned by her father.

He told her about his own father shooting himself in the head, and how he’d drifted for days with his body next to him, wondering whether he would also die on the open water, just like him.

When she cried, he held her close and told her that he loved her.

When he cried, she wiped away his tears and told him that she loved him. 

With each story told, they fell just that little bit more in love. 

With each memory shared, they knew that they had done the right thing. That leaving Starling City had been the right thing, for the both of them, something that they had sorely needed, not only to give themselves a break but also to give themselves to each other. 

Felicity had once asked Oliver if he had any happy stories. Maybe it didn’t really matter, in the end. Because now they were creating ones of their own. 


End file.
